A Moving Vigil and the Plaistow North By-election
Three narratives:
On the evening of Friday 20th October, a modest crowd gathered “to remember those who lost their lives in the senseless violence in Gaza”. Or,
In an attempt to generate political support in the byelection, on the back of the suffering in Gaza, a vigil was held on Friday 20th October. Or,
It was a chance for a bit of virtue signalling.
Take your choice as to the narrative you prefer. We suspect that all have a degree of truth. We thought that we would take the opportunity to contrast this vigil with the ways in which local political leaders and the community have shown solidarity with other victims of violence in the middle east.
The act of remembrance and concern was echoed in a vigil called to remember the 1300 Jews, murdered on the 7th October and also the 200 hostages abducted “in a senseless act of violence”.
And then there was the vigil to remember the civilian victims gassed in Syria under the orders of Bashar al Assad.
And the vigil to mourn the murder of 13,000 political prisoners in Syrian jails.
And the one to show solidarity with the 12 million Syrian civilians displaced by the forces of Assad and ISIS.
And the deaths of 9000 and the displacement of nearly 6 million from Sudan.
Of course, there was the vigil to condemn the Lebanese civil war, killing 120,000 and displacing 1 million, when Syria sought to eliminate the PLO.
And the 100,000-180,000 Kurds killed by Saddam in his Anfal Campaign
And the gassing of the town of Halabja and 47 other towns and villages by Saddam.
And then there was the vigil remembering nearly 400,000 killed in Yemeni conflict.
And those who gathered to remember up to 25,000 killed by Hafez al Assad at Hama.
And the gathering to commemorate the lives of some 200,000 Iraqis killed in inter-communal (Sunni/Shia) violence since 2005.
Or the death of 3000 and the expulsion of the Palestinians from Jordan.
Nor should we overlook the grief when, in a series of tit-for-tat murders Maronite Arabs killed Muslim Arabs, and the PLO and Muslim militias returned the compliment at Damour, Karantina and Tel al-Zaatar.
Of course, we should not overlook the event to commemorate the mass murder of (Shia) Hazara people in Afghanistan; what Amnesty calls the collective punishment of the Panjshir Valley, and the mass executions of political opponents by the Taliban.
It seems that only certain tragedies are to be remembered.
What we ask is, what is different about this one? It is a virtuous thing to honour those who have been killed. But why is it that no-one wants to stand with Sudanese, with Yemenis, with Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians and Afghans?
We have scratched our heads to think why it was that no-one felt enough empathy to stand with their suffering Muslims killed by other Muslims. We just can’t work it out. Just what is different about Gaza? Why was nobody interested in “standing up for human life and international law” when they were being killed?
A final Note:
To their credit, Newham council have held a cross cultural and interfaith remembrance event. This does show an effort to recognise the pain felt by people of the different sides of the issue and it seeks to avoid the tunnel vision of some campaigners.
The downside is that it looks like an afterthought, only done in response to the vigil organised by Cllr Mirza. But they are trying.
